Beautiful Scenery

Up about 5:20, hotel dude woke me. I got dressed, finished packing, was getting ready to go have some breakfast, and there was a knock on my door. It was the hotel dude, all flustered, the bus was here already, 35 minutes early, at 5:40! The hotel guy quickly ran and got me a boiled egg and a banana and some other fruit I've never seen before, and I hopped on the bus. I ate the egg and the banana, but saved the other fruit for another day, stuffed it in my bag.

Two other tourists in this bus (and a bunch of locals).

The bus cruised around town, and we finally left about 6:20.

The road snakes along the mountains, then came out along the sea. Bajawa was nice because it was high in the mountains, and very cool.

Ende was very nice, surrounded by mountains on three sides, the ocean with an island with two volcanoes in the bay on the ocean side.

From Ende, the road climbs inland to Moni, twisting along a steep ravine. In Ende, we picked up two more tourists.

Got to Moni about 11:00, and I took a dive of a place for 25,000. A couple from Holland, Ilse and Martin, were sitting at the bungalow next to me, waiting for the bus to Ende, the owner of the bungalows kept changing the time the bus was supposed to be coming, and at the same time, the owners cousin was trying to convince them to stay another night.

I gave my laundry to the bungalows, then went across the street for lunch, and the Hollandish couple joined me a few minutes later, the bungalow guy told them the next bus would be between 2:00 and 3:00. While we ordered and waited, we saw three buses go buy on their way to Ende.

After lunch, they waited for another bus, the owner told them he'd wave it down for them. I went for a walk up and down the town, it started to rain, so back to my room, 30 minutes later, about 2:30. They were still waiting. They decided it was getting too late to leave, so they decided they would instead catch a bus to Bajawa tomorrow morning instead. I was doing the same, so had the bungalow guy reserve three seats on the Maumere to Bajawa bus for tomorrow morning, 50,000 each. I also had the bungalow organize a shared bemo to pick me up tomorrow morning at 4:00AM for Keli Mutu, the three-coloured lakes. 30,000 return.

We sat around and talked, Martin is a cop in Amsterdam, used to work in the red-light district, so he had some good stories.

We went for supper about 6:15, then sat around at the restaurant, then to bed.